Thursday, February 15, 2018

2018 Olympic Blurb Day 6

My day was a little off because I had a lovely evening not watching the Olympics. (I know - shocker! "How dare you!") But when a Marvel movie comes out, you set your schedule to its premier.

As a result, I watched a few things with my students this morning and then caught slivers of Friday events as I type this article. Not sure about medals, not sure about Americans, but the Olympics don't pause when I have a life - and I just have to live with that.

Speaking of Marvel movies, Black Panther was a very well done movie, and sometimes it was hard to remember that it was a Marvel movie at all! And Danai Gurira is my new hero.

As a matter of fact, I had two students come to me with solemn looks on their faces and, in all seriousness, ask me if maybe Germany was "doing drugs" (AKA doping). I assured them that in an event like pairs figure skating it didn't make sense to do doping because it was based more on precision and execution, and they shouldn't worry about it.

Clearly I need to branch out on my viewing choices for these kids, though let's be honest: Germany always does very well in the Winter Olympics. (And they weren't even in the lead in overall medals at the end of Thursday - that role went to Norway!)

We watched a few events and gave them a writing assignment to put together an article about something they'd watched. One was the pairs figure skating by Savchenko and Massot (and I made sure to put together difficult words on the board so they could copy them), one was team luge by Team USA, and another was Shaun White's gold medal in halfpipe. It was interesting seeing the stuff that they chose to spotlight in their short articles.

Mini Blurbs

Today's watchlist:

figure skating

alpine skiing

skeleton

luge

biathlon

cross-country skiing

One of my dinner options today was a highly-ranked Asian restaurant on my way to the movie theater that did serve some Korean food, but the other menu choices seemed a little too mainstream for me. Instead, I decided on a tiny Vietnamese place, where I had pho and a bao taco. The pho was okay (I think I've spoiled myself with delicious Japanese ramen that no other Asian noodle soup can compare) but the bao taco was awesome! I wish I'd gotten four or five of those.

That German pairs routine was amazing - they had moves I hadn't even conceived before. They deserved that gold, and I was a bit worried they might lose out. Luckily, I was wrong!

Team luge relay is an amazing event and it's a shame that it starts and finishes so quickly that no one really gets a chance to enjoy it. They only do one run each, but it's the slap of the giant paddle at the end that opens up the gates at the top that makes it so awesome. But blink and you'll miss it! It's also one of those mixed-gender team events that combines one female slider, one male slider, and one male doubles sled. They need to add more runs for this. I remember discovering this in the Sochi broadcasts and it immediately shot up to one of my favorite winter events.

I watched a Snapchat story about Malaysia's Julian Yee and how he had to practice his figure skating routines in mall ice rinks because Malaysia isn't a cold-weather country at all. It was really great to see such a lovely routine, though it didn't rank as highly as some others. He still did a great job!

It doesn't happen often, but I'm watching men's figure skating and women's slalom, and at the same time I saw athletes from Georgia competing. Of all the countries, it was Georgia!

Tomorrow will be a lot of catch-up, but I'll do my best to deliver it all to you! (And you should go see Black Panther sometime, too.)

My name is Claire Nat! You can follow me on Twitter @CeePipes for lots of Olympic comments, or follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/blurbmusings. Check out my blog for other articles!Read about Day 7 HERE!